Roy Wood Jr. Talks About Finding His Role On ‘The Daily Show’ And Why He Wore A Cubs Robe To Work

As the 2016 election winds down, we’re spending the next week talking to some of the people who’ve been on the campaign season’s frontlines, the correspondents of The Daily Show With Trevor Noah in advance of the show’s live election day show on November 8th.

When Roy Wood Jr. first came to the phone for our interview last week, he was using his lunch break to dig around for props to make an Instagram video. “I’m making a voodoo curse shrine about the Indians. I’m the Cubs fan trying to put a little voodoo curse on them,” he explained.

After spending more than a decade in radio honing his comedy chops, Wood took third in Last Comics Standing‘s seventh season back in 2010. He spent a few years doing sitcom work, namely on TBS’s Sullivan and Son, and was eventually hired as a correspondent for The Daily Show With Trevor Noah last year, when Trevor Noah took over as the host. As The Daily Show prepares for its live election night special on November 8th, we got the chance to talk to Wood about what it’s like for him to bring his unique comic perspective to the long-running late night institution.

What was it like coming into The Daily Show amidst all that change?

Having not known what it was like with Jon Stewart when he was here, for me, it was all first day of school. People can tell me what it was like with “How Jon could walk in a room and he could fix your joke in three sentences,” all these tales of amazement. I’m sure it was all of those things, but for me, this was a new journey.